23 April 2009
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks, according to senior US officials.
As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan’s lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.
U.S. personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country’s burgeoning extremist underground. The Web sites frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempts to justify acts of violence.
The push takes the administration deeper into “psychological operations,” which attempt to influence how people see the U.S., its allies and its enemies. Officials involved with the new program argue that psychological operations are a necessary part of reversing the deterioration of stability in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Taliban and other armed groups have carried out a wave of attacks in the two countries. U.S. officials believe the Taliban enjoy an advantage by being able to freely communicate threats and decrees.
In Pakistan, Taliban leaders use unlicensed FM stations to recite the names of local Pakistani government officials, police officers and other figures who have been marked for death by the group. Hundreds of people named in the broadcasts have later been killed, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.
The Obama administration’s recently released strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan calls for sending 4,000 U.S. military trainers to Afghanistan and sharply expanding economic aid to Pakistan. The U.S. may also provide radio-jamming equipment to the Pakistani government, according to officials familiar with the plans.
22 April 2009
VT Communications (VTC) in partnership with the BBC World Service has won the prestigious Team of the Year – Professional and Support Services at the BBC Global News Reith Awards.
The partnership between the two organisations was rewarded for its dedication and commitment in the re-engineering of the BBC World Services Control Room and establishing a new Network Operations Centre (NOC) within timescales whilst maintaining high levels of service availability. This was the first time an external supplier has won an award at this event.
These internal awards celebrate excellence, innovation and creativity across BBC Global News. Sir David Attenborough presented the award at a ceremony in London on 11 March.
BBC World Service needed to meet the growing needs of its global audience of 182 million listeners, and prepare for its delivery of its first television services in Arabic and Persian.
At the same time, VTC was looking for an opportunity to broaden its service offering to a wider range of broadcast platforms and invested in a state-of-the-art Media Management Centre (MMC) in London.
VTCs strong heritage of connecting broadcasters with their global audiences, and its long term relationship with the BBC World Service meant that the success of each project was reliant on a partnership approach to deliver successful results.
Throughout 2008, the companies worked together to implement the technological, operational and structural changes required. Despite the physical disruption, service availability reached its highest ever level never less than 99.99%.
The BBC NOC is now jointly staffed by a team of dedicated BBC Duty Operations Managers with round-the-clock support from highly-trained VTC Operational and Broadcast Support teams, providing the best ever programme availability to the BBC World Service audience.
Mike Cronk, Controller Future Media, Technology & Distribution at BBC Global News, said: This was the largest re-engineering of the BBC Control Room in 15 years and was only possible through the close collaboration of the BBC and VT teams. Its been a period of huge change with the Network Operations centre now handling BBC World Service Arabic TV and Persian TV services. The new technology coupled with the way the teams are now working means output performance is at an all time high.
Bryan Coombes, Director of Broadcast at VT Communications, said: At VTC we work in partnership with broadcasters to manage their current needs, and plan together for the future. This project is a great example of how effective the partnership is with the BBC World Service and how it delivers mutually beneficial results. We were able to provide staff to the BBC to allow for peak workload periods, training, leave and other ad hoc projects, something that could only have succeeded with complete dedication on both sides.
22 April 2009
During NAB in Las Vegas, German public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) opted for a campus licence of S4Ms ClipJOCKEY System.The studio production tool covers all workflows in TV control rooms and is supposed to be applied to all sites of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.
MDR has used S4Ms Video Production Management System (VPMS) since 2003. Amongst other things VPMS controls video capture and manages the complete HiRes storage for high resolution broadcast quality video. Hitherto, the module Playout Control was applied in order to pilot the processes in control rooms; now it will be replaced by the new ClipJOCKEY solution. ClipJOCKEY supports the daily processes carried out in TV control rooms, allows to work throughout within a file-based environment and offers MDRs users a variety of new features and functions.
For instance, the system supports all MDR server platforms (Omneon, Grass Valley K2), administers several active playlists simultaneously, provides a time-delayed playout of video material while it is still recorded (playout while record) and it enables to import ingest lists in different formats (ALE, EDL).
In addition the pre-production of magazines can be accomplished without tapes. Especially to that end, S4M has developed the add-on mode offering the same comfort that was hitherto only possible in a tape-based context. A multi channel link feature also supports key-fill applications and multi camera productions.
In a first step ClipJOCKEY will be installed in the HD- ready control room 1 in Leipzig. MDR will use this location to provide the 2010 Winter Olympics program for Germanys public broadcaster consortium ARD. As soon as MDRs main office in Leipzig is equipped with the system, the regional broadcasting studios in Dresden, Magdeburg and Erfurt including the ARD/ZDF Kinderkanal (kids channel) are supposed to employ ClipJOCKEY as well.
22 April 2009
US broadcasters announced at the National Association of Broadcaster’s annual conference in Las Vegas that a new pilot programme is launching in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area that will allow people to watch free mobile digital television on cell phones and other mobile devices.
Local affiliate stations for CBS, NBC, PBS, Ion, and Fox will broadcast their programmes beginning in late summer for mobile devices, which includes cell phones, laptops and car entertainment systems. Broadcasters throughout the country are switching to all-digital transmission in June as part of a government mandate. And as part of the switch, some broadcasters will also broadcast their over-the-air TV signals on a digital sub-channel for mobile devices.
The standard that will be used to transmit the signal is called ATSC Mobile DTV. And the hope is that consumer electronics makers, like cell phone manufacturers, will include the technology in their products so that they can receive the signals.
The trial in the Baltimore-Washington area is expected to kick off later this summer. But it’s only the first step toward offering free mobile DTV. Broadcasters in 28 markets, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta, said they will be broadcasting their signals in mobile DTV.
22 April 2009
Quantel and Spatial View Inc. have entered into a strategic partnership agreement that will make it easier and more cost-effective for content creators of any size to accelerate 3D development projects. The first partnership project will be a plug-in that enables Stereo3D material produced on Quantel systems to be displayed on a wide variety of Spatial View devices, including 3D displays, computer screens, and the iPhone 3G, without the need for 3D glasses.
Quantels ground-breaking Stereo3D technology, as used in movie productions such as Disneys spectacularly successful Hannah Montana concert movie, has enabled the industry to handle the post production of live action, high resolution Stereo3D media in manageable timescales for the first time. Spatial View is a leading developer of autostereoscopic 3D image processing and display technologies that enable glasses-free presentation of 3D-rich content for key markets, including retail/POS, digital signage, professional design, gaming, entertainment and animation. Spatial Views latest product, the Wazabee 3DeeShell, enables 3D content to be viewed on the iPhone 3G, glasses-free.
We are pleased to partner with Quantel to enhance their leading content creation system with our advanced 3D display technology, said Brad Casemore, VP Business Development at Spatial View. With at least 14 3D films scheduled for release this year, 40 expected to be released over the next three years and industry anticipation that 70% of film admissions will be in 3D by 2010*, this timely partnership is set to benefit production studios as they ramp up these 3D productions. Additionally, content creators will now have a 3D solution that can be viewed across multiple distribution platforms, from display screens to the iPhone 3G.
How Stereo3D gets delivered is a real issue for many of the people we are talking to, said Steve Owen, Quantel Director of Marketing. Spatial View provides an innovative range of solutions that both bypass and complement the traditional broadcast delivery chain. Its all about getting great stereo in front of as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Our partnership with Spatial View will help to achieve this and drive this exciting new business area.
In addition to the development of the plug-in, Quantel will offer demonstrations featuring Spatial Views autostereoscopic 3D technology over the coming months. The plug-in is scheduled for release this Spring.
22 April 2009
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a rapidly growing provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, has launched a new service: RRsat Global Internet TV (www.RRsatGlobalInternet.tv). This is a global, managed, end-to-end TV service solution, which delivers TV from broadcasters anywhere in the world to viewers throughout the world, for viewing on television screens, PCs and mobile devices, using the infrastructure of the Public Internet.
RRsat Global Internet TV offers a broad content platform to attract viewers from all over the globe, providing content unavailable from local TV Operators, with viewing on all three screens: TV set, PC and mobile phone.
To Broadcasters, RRsat Global Internet TV affords worldwide exposure through a single global solution. The system utilizes cutting-edge technology to achieve highly-economical, reliable delivery of TV over the public Internet, to unlimited numbers of viewers. RRsat Global Internet TV also enables Broadcasters to further monetize their channels via the services integral ad insertion system which serves targeted, high-value advertising in accordance with each Broadcasters policy.
David Rivel, Founder and CEO of RRsat, commented: We are proud to offer our broadcasting customers an additional category of services, which affords them easy access to audiences worldwide, exposure across all viewing devices, and new revenue streams. We bring to this new service the same responsiveness, quality and reliability that our customers always expect and receive from RRsat.
IN MARCH, RRSAT WON THE 2009 INDEPENDENT TELEPORT OPERATOR OF
THE YEAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
